Safety vs HiFi

Would you risk your family's safety in the name of sound?


  • Total voters
    81

i_should_coco

Wammer
Wammer
Sep 21, 2006
21,679
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Out of curiosity, who is prepared to give up a bit of electrical safety in the interests of better sound (as they perceive it)?

 

RobHolt

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Wammer
Aug 28, 2006
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East London
AKA
Rob
Nope. Explaining to the fire officer carrying out the charred bodies that 'I thought it sounded better that way' really won't help.

 

i_should_coco

Wammer
Wammer
Sep 21, 2006
21,679
396
128
Sorry, missed it on my phone. And I'm a little bit stupid. Which one should I choose?
Option 2. You'll get to speak to a customer care in the community representative. :p

 

i_should_coco

Wammer
Wammer
Sep 21, 2006
21,679
396
128
Good question, though I was thinking more of *deliberately* defeating safety features for a better perceived SQ.

 

meninblack

Wammer Plus
Wammer Plus
Jul 20, 2005
22,674
1,107
208
HiFi Trade?
  1. Yes
I voted no, but what would be your definition of risking safety? Electrostatics? 200W tubed power?
- using mains wiring that doesn't meet regulations

- removing fuses or using incorrectly specified fuses

- using 110V mains plugs/sockets at 240V

etc.

 

Valvebloke

Member
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Dec 3, 2009
4,432
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Didcot, Oxon
AKA
Graeme
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
As I'm sure you know Pete, this is a more subtle point than the question suggests. 'Giving up' a bit of safety is, um, a leading way of putting it.

I might argue that no piece of electrical equipment is 100% safe. If nothing else many of them are heavy enough to pose a risk of injury if they were to fall onto their owner or if he/she were to lift them carelessly. Of course the risk of that is usually very, very small indeed and I, for one, am usually prepared to accept it. But I could have bought the kit from someone who wasn't prepared to accept it and who had replaced, say, the transformers in a power amp with smaller, lighter ones to make it safer. Indeed he would have made it (a tiny bit) safer and he might have compromised the sound quality in the process. So would I leave it in the condition in which he sold it to me, or would I 'give up' the safety improvement he'd made in return for getting some bass response back ? In the end it always comes down to judgement. For example, if I was running a valve amp in a public place or in a home where it might be accessible by children/pets/drunks then I'd want a valve cage on it. If I was running it in my home (no kids, no pets, only occasional drunks and even then not likely to mess with the electrics) then I'd quite happily run an amp which didn't have a valve cage. And I'd use a 2-pin Bulgin connector for the mains (with appropriate additional earthing) and 4mm speaker sockets and a screw-in mains voltage selector if that's what the manufacturer had fitted. All of these would be regarded by some people as 'unsafe' by modern standards even though they were almost universally used with a negligible rate of injury once.

I would however think very long and hard before I reduced any of a manufacturer's safety features, not least because of the very negative effect that would probably have on my insurance.

Just my two penn'orth of course.

VB

 

68rednose

Wammer
Wammer
Mar 11, 2013
1,832
47
93
Mainland Europe
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
- using mains wiring that doesn't meet regulations - removing fuses or using incorrectly specified fuses

- using 110V mains plugs/sockets at 240V

etc.
Ah, got it.

So the question is, would you mind the risk of dead people to get a sound to die for :) .

To me, again, most definitely a 'no'.

 

mmar

Wammer
Wammer
Jun 16, 2008
3,660
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93
North east
AKA
mick
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
So is it just mains cables that can affect potential insurance claims or any mod made that deviates away from the original manufactures spec / design ?

 

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